ALMOST 250 people have signed a petition calling for Coventry City Council to join the campaign against education cuts and tuition fees.

They want the government to bring back the education maintenance allowance, a payment made to students staying on at sixth form or college, which will be scrapped later this year.

The petition was started in October last year when a modern day version of the Jarrow march came through Coventry.

The marchers, protesting at youth unemployment, highlighted tuition fees and abolition of the EMA as two of their concerns.

They were following in the footsteps of unemployed people marching for jobs from Jarrow to London 76 years ago in the recession of the 1930s.

Coventry-based supporters started a petition about the two issues to try and get Coventry City Council involved in the campaign.

They say the cutbacks and increased fees have left thousands of young people in Coventry either unable to stay on at school, college or university or out of a job.

The petition has been signed by 248 people and will be considered at a meeting headed by Coun Lynnette Kelly (Lab, Henley), cabinet member for eduction.

A council report recommends she assure the petitioner that the council is trying to ensure there are jobs, training and education for all young people in the city.

Coun Dave Nellist (Soc, St Michael’s), who handed the petition to the council, said: “In working class families the prospect of being up to £50,000 in debt with no guarantee of a job is putting people off going to university.

“Anecdotally the end of the education maintenance allowance means some young people who would have stayed at school feel the need to leave and start earning money. Others do jobs in the evening when they should be studying.

“We are asking the council to host a meeting to bring all the campaigning organisations together.”

The EMA paid up to £30 a week depending on household income to 16 to 18-year-olds at school sixth forms or college.

The payments are being phased out and are due to stop completely in June.